Villagers want quality education on islands

GALOA villagers are worried about the monotonous education system their children on remote islands are provided with.

This, they said, had the possibility of hindering their personal development.

Villager Tevita Vukavuka said most stream of classes at the island school practised composite classes where two or more classes shared one teacher.

And he said there was a need to have different teachers for the different classes in the school.

"Our children see the same thing every day and hear the same person for two years or three years in cases where three classes are merged during their primary education and this is sort of boring for them," said Mr Vukavuka.

"There is a need to liven up the learning environment and update teaching methods and tools of children in our school so they do not get bored, which has happened to many of our young ones," he said.

"The school currently has a roll of 77 children with one teacher teaching approximately 20 students in a class," he said. Responding to the villagers' concerns, divisional education officer northern Mere Fisher said the number of teachers in a school depended on the school's student roll.

"The Education Act clearly stipulates that the ratio of teachers in schools should be 1:20, meaning that there will be a need for teachers in a class if the roll is 20 and more," Ms Fisher said.